Bento Recipe: Chocolate
dipped strawberries

You need to use chocolate melts as opposed to chips
or other chocolate that's not designed for dipping.
Trust me on this. First, wash and pat dry the strawberries,
but do not cut off the top part with the leaves. Then put
the melts in a small microwave-safe container and nuke
them at half power for 30 seconds. Stir them with a
fork. Nuke for another 30 seconds at half power. Stir
again. Soon the melts will soften. When you can
stir them into a thick liquid, they're ready. If you
microwave them any more the chocolate can thicken and
become unsuitable.

Hold a strawberry by the leaves and dunk it into
the chocolate. Cover about 2/3 of the berry, leaving
the top free. Set it down on a plate to cool. If you
can get it to balance on the leaves, well and good,
as that keeps the chocolate off the plate, but that's
not always possible. (A pair of chopsticks can help
manipulate the berry at this point.) Repeat until all
are dipped. Let the chocolate harden. If berries are
stuck to the plate by hardened chocolate, use a spoon
to lever them up. With a little finesse you can do this
without leaving chocolate "peelings" on the
plate.

If you have more leftover chocolate than you expected,
why not dunk some other stuff? Try other fruit (like
the grape pictured above), cherries, potato chips, cookies,
pretzels, whatever. I especially like chocolate Pringles.